Leo

Another lovely painting with your wonderful grass. I like the painting as it is. It has a unity and calmness about it. But if you wanted to make the dog stand out more, you would need to accentuate the contrast in his face and paws. But personally I would leave it alone.

I would absolutely leave it alone! It doesn't need anything more - by placing the dog in context you've made him believable. As a matter of technical interest - I'm assuming you worked on this over a period of time, perhaps up to a month or so? You could have got the dog in a couple of sittings, but I don't see how you'd have achieved the excellent, realistic, and still not overdone detail in the grasses in any other than a relatively prolonged period in which the paint had been able to 'prove', to become sticky and receptive to fresh strokes. Your dog, or a portrait commission? I'd be very happy if this were a portrait of my (now all deceased) canine companions.

Your comments are very kind. This painting was a commission and took 48 hours (I always record time taken on commissions). Most of the time was taken on the grass which was painted with an 0 and an 0/3 synthetic brush. I used to use sables, but with oil they lose their ability to point quite quickly. Each blade of grass was probably repainted 4 - 6 times to get the light rights, and then I go back and paint between the blades. It looks very tight, but actually the brushstrokes start loose and there are areas that have been left loose if you look closely. Leo and Alfie are to be delivered this morning - I shall miss not having them around. One gets quite fond of the dog being painted in absentia!

Very elegant painting and a great idea to balance the work between the dog and the grass and background.

I love this picture. Leo's brindle colour is shown off beautifully and I can feel the springiness of the ground, the texture and content of the grass is so detailed.